Good news and bad news, in quartets
There are, at least so far, four big ways the Democratic convention is helping Hillary Clinton . . .
1. Bernie Sanders is doing everything he can to get his supporters to vote for Hillary. On Monday, Sanders declared that, “Hillary Clinton will make an outstanding president, and I am proud to stand with her here tonight,” before urging his delegates to not make a scene or disrupt the proceedings. On Tuesday, he moved to give Clinton the party’s presidential nomination by acclamation.
The protesters in downtown Philadelphia and the unruly delegates inside the arena are proof that a vocal number of Sanders’s supporters remain unprepared to follow him into Clinton’s corner. But the Clinton campaign dodged a bullet by convincing the Vermont senator to be on his best behavior this week. If he were a bit more like Ted Cruz, he could have really thrown a monkey-wrench into the proceedings in Philadelphia.
2. Television ratings are higher than they were for the Republicans in Cleveland. If you want to persuade voters, you need them to tune in. The collective audience among all the networks for Democratic convention coverage was 25.7 million the first night and 24.7 million the second night. Last week, Republicans attracted 23 million on the first night and 19.7 million on the second. It’s not a huge gap, and there’s an argument to be made that the subsequent coverage and social-media discussion are more important than live viewership. But the Democrats wanted as big an audience as possible for their arguments for Hillary, and so far, they have to be pretty pleased with the numbers.
3. The headlining speakers have done well. Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama have given hundreds of speeches in the past eight years, so they know their way around a podium. Except for one line here or there, each of them expertly delivered their well-written remarks. There have been some clunkers; no one is going to rank Tim Kaine’s “Believe Me” Trump impression among the great convention moments of all time. Despite the hype, Elizabeth Warren comes across as the irritated professor that Joseph Kennedy III described. Bill Clinton’s tribute to his wife turned into a long slog through their courtship and early marital years. And the top speakers have started late and finished well past 11 p.m. on the East Coast. But unlike the closing speakers at the Republican convention, they’re still addressing a full arena at the end of the night.
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4. The protests haven’t been that bad. Yes, someone accidentally set themselves on fire while stepping on a burning American flag. Yes, there have been four arrests for climbing over a security fence. Yes, “69 demonstrators in Philadelphia this week have had their hands zip-tied behind their backs by police before being whisked away to an elementary school where they were issued citations for disorderly conduct and released.”
But all in all, Philadelphia, like Cleveland before it, has been pretty calm considering the pre-convention concerns about serious violence and tensions between protesters and police.
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#share#There are also four ways the Democratic convention may be hurting Clinton . . .
1. This is a happy convention at a time when the country isn’t happy. There’s really no sign from this convention stage that the electorate’s answer to the “right track/wrong direction” question is discouraging and has been for many years. If Trump’s convention speech was too dark, the Democrats’ cheery depiction of an ever-greater America appears Pollyannaish.
“This right now is the greatest country on Earth,” Michelle Obama claimed. But is the right comparison to other countries, or to a not-so-long-ago past? Does it feel like the country is at its greatest to the millions of Americans unemployed and under-employed, collecting disability and food stamps? To cops wondering if they’ll live through their shifts? When “wages and benefits have essentially flatlined or declined for four out of five Americans between 2007 and 2014,” is it really bad-mouthing America to look at the state of the country today and say, “Things have been better”?
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2. The convention is showcasing an anti-war party just as ISIS strikes the West. The first two nights included no mentions of ISIS, even as Europe suffers an Islamist terrorist attack every two or three days. If you’re worried that America’s future could have more San Bernardinos and Orlandos, this convention isn’t doing much to reassure you. When Leon Panetta, the former secretary of defense and CIA director, stepped to the stage to acknowledge that “America faces flashpoints and threats from around the globe,” he was booed, and the crowd broke into chants of “No More War!” and “Lies!” He was so visibly flustered the he had to restart his sentences a few times. Convention organizers tried to turn out the lights on the sections with the loudest anti-war voices, but that only attracted more attention.
In other words, the one time a speaker addressed ISIS, al-Qaeda, and Boko Haram, a loud chunk of the Democratic party acted as if the U.S. military was the villain.
#related#3. Enough celebrities already. If Hollywood picked the president, Democrats would never lose. Yes, if you’re already a Hillary fan, it probably thrills your heart to see celebrities singing “This Is Our Fight Song” and dedicate it to her. But does that really move an undecided or wavering viewer at home, or does it look like a bunch of wealthy, happy celebrities singing about how determined they are to elect Clinton?
4. Wasn’t this supposed to be an outsiders’ year? Most of the first three nights’ speakers aimed to show just how “prepared” Clinton and Kaine are, and to go through their resumes. She’s been the first lady of a state and a nation, a senator, and a secretary of state; he’s been a city councilman, a mayor, a lieutenant governor, a governor, a Democratic National Committee chairman, and a senator. Each is the definition of a “career politician.” If you’re dissatisfied with what you see in Washington D.C. right now, isn’t the Clinton-Kaine ticket more of the same?
— Jim Geraghty is the senior political correspondent for National Review.